Reviews: Roberts, Adam

The Thing Itself —
Adam Roberts

2015’s
The
Thing Itself
is a standalone novel by Adam Roberts.

Perhaps
in another trouser-leg of time, Charles Gardner’s Antarctic sojourn
with fellow researcher Roy Curtius ended with professional accolades
all round. In the timeline related in this novel, Gardner and Curtius
not only failed to provide the world with tangible evidence of SETI,
but Curtius went mad and Gardner only narrowly survived the murder
attempt that followed.

A
traumatized and scarred Gardner spent the next few decades tumbling
down the ladder of British society, only coming to rest when there
was nowhere else to fall. Obscurity and an unremarked death seemed
all that was left to the alcoholic, abrasive former scientist.

The
researchers at an obscure Institute are convinced that Curtius holds
the key to their ambitious research. They believe that Gardner can
provide them with the leverage to render Curtius, long consigned to
an institution for the criminally insane, tractable. Why bother? They
are sure that Curtius holds the key to understanding the true reality
behind the reality we perceive.